COVID-19: Police Intercept Sokoto Travellers at Osun-Oyo Boundary

Oyo State Police Command on Saturday arrested no fewer than eleven travelers from Sokoto in Ibadan, the state capital.

The eleven travelers defied the inter-state lockdown order of the Oyo State Government, in their bid to sneak into Akure, Ondo State.

Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sina Olukolu, who briefed Governor, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on his arrival at the Gbagi Police Station, where the culprits were detained overnight, said the travelers were apprehended at the Asejire Dam axis of the Ibadan-Osun boundary.

Olukolu added that they claimed they were traveling from Sokoto en route to Akure, Ondo State.

Makinde, while reacting, however, said the travelers will not be released to the Sokoto State Government until they undergo COVID-19 tests, and that they would remain isolated until the results of their Covid-19 tests were received from the state.

He noted that the government has begun COVID-19 tests for travelers.

Makinde said “We are not able to explain how they got here in the first place because there is inter-state lockdown throughout the country.

“They claimed they came from Sokoto and they must have passed through so many states.”

The governor also explained that he has given directives to the effect that the travelers would be kept isolated in Ibadan until the results of their COVID-19 tests are received.

The governor also explained that he was in touch with the Sokoto State governor, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, and that the travelers would be sent back to Sokoto State.

He said that the state would intensify ongoing strategies for inter-state lockdown.

“I am also in discussion with the governor of Sokoto State. We are more than likely going to return them to Sokoto.”

The governor maintained that governors in the country were still discussing on how to enforce the inter-state lockdown throughout the country to curtail the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

“It is a discussion going on with the rest governors in Nigeria, because inter-state lockdown was put in place for a particular reason and what we have agreed to do is, in each state where you have inter-state motor parks, they must be on lockdown. If they are locked down, at least 80 to 85 percent of our problems would have been solved. It is an ongoing discussion and I believe that will be the ultimate way to go.”

In his response during the interrogation, the driver of the bus, who identified himself as Muhammad Idris, said they passed through old roads and bushes from Sokoto to Niger and Kwara and then got into Ogbomoso, from where they entered Ibadan.

He added that they were going to Akure “to reconnect with their family members.”